Russia slams Germany for halting arms deal over Crimea

23rd March 2014, 1 comment

Russia's Deputy Defence Minister Anatoly Antonov on Sunday said Germany's decision to halt a major arms deal over Moscow's takeover of Crimea was "unconstructive" and taken under pressure from the United States.

Berlin on Wednesday blocked German defence group Rheinmetall from proceeding with a 100-million-euro ($140-million) contract to build a training camp for Russian forces, saying any military deals in the current context would be "indefensible".

"Refusing to have contacts and exchanges between delegates from military agencies is cancelling out the positive trends developed in recent years," Antonov said, quoted by the Interfax news agency.

"We consider that the decisions of the German side were taken under pressure and to be unconstructive."

He blamed the United States for pressuring both Germany and France, whose Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Friday that it had suspended most military cooperation with Russia.

"It's obvious that the notorious 'Atlantic solidarity' prompted our French and German partners to make loud statements on Russia," Antonov said.

1 Comment To This Article

Have the Germans forgotten that Putin is Stalin’s heir; and as the Soviets moved through Germany at the end of World War II, they raped at least two million German women in what is now acknowledged as the largest case of mass rape in history.

I had a secretary who grew up in Berlin, and was a young girl when it happened. She said that she had seen things no human being should ever experience. Surely, there are Germans alive today who remember this, or have learned of such barbarism.

This is Putin today; and he must be crushed or history will repeat itself.

Twice now, he has used the Olympics as a “cover” for his naked aggression. First, when he left the games in Beijing and went directly to the border with Georgia, and launched his aggression against Georgia and the killing of Georgians—using a conscript army and Soviet-era equipment. Now, when he left Sochi and launched his aggression against Ukraine.

The Soviets left Afghanistan with their tails between their legs, just as they left Berlin. I was in Berlin when it was happening; and they were selling their uniforms and everything else (e.g., plumbing from their barracks), and going back to “tent cities” in the USSR. This needs to happen again. Crimea and Ukraine must be Putin’s abyss—or far far worse.

See http://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2010/02/09/russias-putin-is-a-killer/#comment-4010 (see also the article itself, as well as the other comments beneath it)